Baby orangutan hanging out with Mom and Dad at Audubon Zoo

If you go to the Audubon Zoo on Mother's Day, be sure to visit Menari, the 11-month-old Sumatran orangutan. She's living with her mom Feliz and her dad Berani in the World of Primates now after being hand-raised by mammal curator Marsha Fernandez and more than a dozen other foster parents.

The Times-Picayune ArchiveThis Mother's Day be sure to visit Menari, a baby orangutan born at the Audubon Zoo."It takes a lot of people to raise one of these babies," Fernandez said. "It takes a village to raise an orang."

Menari was hand-raised because Feliz couldn't get the hang of nursing her, a frequent problem with first-time orangutan moms.

As soon as staff members realized Menari wasn't eating, they moved the 3-pound baby to a nursery in the zoo's Animal Health Care Center, where caretakers took turns sleeping on a cot next to her, bottle-feeding her every two hours, giving her the attention newborns need, and changing her Preemie Pampers.

"You have to put them on backwards or they get ripped right off," Fernandez said.

Although Menari required an abundance of care during the first months of her life, she was well worth the trouble. The adorable strawberry blonde with the flyaway hair was the first Sumatran orangutan born at Audubon Zoo since 1996, and one of only two or three born in the U.S. last year.

The species is critically endangered in its Indonesian homeland, where the rain forests are being burned and turned into palm oil plantations. Loss of habitat and illegal animal trading have decimated the population and left many orphaned babies. It's estimated that the species will be extinct in the wild in less than 20 years.

"It's an area that has a wildly expanding population, and people there want the things we have, which is understandable," Fernadez said. "But to lose a species like orangs would really be sad."

Fernandez is a pro at raising orangutan babies. She has raised several in her 28 years at the zoo, including Feliz, more than 20 years ago.

"One of our longtime volunteers, Marcia Frank, helped me when I was raising Feliz," she said. "When she helped me with Menari, we joked about her raising her grandchild."

Raising a baby orang is a lot like raising a human baby. Menari will be on Enfamil until she's a year old. She still gets three bottles a day with Gerber's rice cereal mixed in.

"They progress in exactly the same order as a human baby, right until they get to speech," Fernandez said. "Then they diverge. It's nice sometimes to have children who can't talk back."

Humans and orangutans may progress in the same order, but it's not at the same rate. Menari already has a full set of teeth, and in addition to formula and cereal, she wants to eat the chopped fruits and vegetables Feliz and Berani eat.

And then there's that whole swinging across the ropes thing she is able to do. You won't see human babies do that.

Menari was allowed to visit her mommy while she was being hand-raised, and gradually progressed from the nursery to staying in the orang building. She was allowed to be alone with her mom after she grew strong and caretakers had taught her how to cling with her hands and feet, the way orang babies hang onto their parents.

The first time she was left with Feliz, her mom wasn't sure what to do.

"The second day she got the idea she was supposed to take care of her baby," Fernandez said. "Feliz is very gentle with her."

Menari is something of a wild child.

"She's really one of the most independent babies I've ever raised," Fernadez said. "Things that scare her mom fascinate her."

Mothers get into the zoo free on Mother's Day. At the Irma Thomas Mother's Day Concert at 2:30 p.m. Audubon Education will have sell iced coffee to benefit Missing Orangutan Mothers and have information about the group that is trying to help orphaned babies and conserve orangutans in their native habitat. Visit redapes.org/mom to learn more about the MOM project.

Sheila Stroup's column appears every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday in the Living section. Contact her at sstroup@timespicayune.com or 985.898.4831.